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Sadies Rock Shivering Songs, Have 3 New Albums Due 2013

Mon, Jan 28, 2013.

The Sadies rocked the Fredericton Boyce Market Saturday night, delivering their usual high-energy show, at the succesful Shivering Songs Festival. Long considered Canada's best live act by hard-core fans and critics alike, the group delivered a set as varied as you'll hear, from surf instrumentals to bluegrass fiddle tunes, gospel and punk. Capping off the evening with an encore of a medley of 60's garage rock, including the Count Five classic Psychotic Reaction, it was their own version of Springsteen's famous Detroit Medley, a Nuggets Medley if you will.

The Sadies haven't played much since getting off the road in the late fall, having opened a highly-successful Canadia tour for Neil Young and Crazy Horse, a series of gigs that brought them even more acclaim and notice. It was a landmark year for the band, oddly enough since they didn't release a studio album of their own. Instead, it was service to others bringing them notice. The spring saw the release of the collaboration with cult soul figure Andre Williams, Night and Day, the group plus special guests getting the 70-plus Williams back in the studio again. The band next surfaced on stage with none other than Gord Downie, backing The Tragically Hip vocalist on a solo set witnessed at the Greenbelt Harvest Festival in Dundas, Ontario Sept. 1. Then came the Young tour. But the question raised was when the next Sadies album would arrive? It's been a long break for them, the last proper disc being 2010's Darker Circles.

Backstage, and onstage Saturday, Sadies members were only too happy to talk about not one, or two new projects, but a full three albums that are planned for release in 2013. The band have been in the studio the past few weeks, recording what will become their next disc, out sometime this year. In the meantime, you can also expect the fruits of their work with Downie. It turns out they just weren't a live team, the quintet have recorded a full-length, which should see the light of day in the middle of the year.

Finally, part of the group, the two with the last name Good, have made the album that's been long considered, and finally a reality. Dallas and Travis Good are the sons of Bruce Good, of Canadian country royalty The Good Brothers. The Goods feature Bruce and his two brothers Brian and Larry, winners of many Juno Awards and still packing them in at gigs across Canada and into Europe. At one point, young Travis was in the band, pre-Sadies. So was his mother, Margaret, at the dawning of the band back in the mid-60's, then called The Kinfolk. Well, all those kinfolk have got together to make an album by the Good Family, which will also be headed our way soon.

So, to re-cap: We'll get one actual Sadies album, one Gord Downie with the Sadies album, and one Good Family album, all in 2013. And of course, lots of shows, that's what The Sadies always do. Hopefully, that will keep fans happy for a while.

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About Bob Mersereau

Bob Mersereau has been covering music, and the East Coast Music Scene since 1985 for CBC. He's a veteran scene-maker at the ECMA's, knows where the best shows and right parties are happening, and more importantly, has survived to tell the tales. His weekly East Coast music column is heard on Shift on Radio 1 in New Brunswick each Wednesday at 4'45. He's also the author of two national best-selling books, The Top 100 Canadian Albums (2007) and The Top 100 Canadian Singles (2010).